Snape can Fly?
by MissLuciusNightWings
Summary: THIS IS AN INFORMATION REPORT NOT A FANFIC! Hehehe that'll probably drive most of you away so I'm not offended. Just a short expository essay discussing Snape's leap of glory in chapter 30 of Deathly Hallows. SPOILERS! (duh..)


Severus Snape: The winged saviour or just a talented escape artist? – Tamika Tran

AN/: Hey guys, for some of you that may have seen this before, this is a REPOST with fixed mistakes and punctuation, etc. Don't forget to reveiw!

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Recently, the release of the book "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" has caused much excitement from the public. However, there is one minor issue that leaves many readers stumped – does Snape have wings?

In the seventh book of the harry potter series, it is stated that the highly esteemed Potions Master, Professor and current Headmaster took flight after he jumped out of a classroom window –

"No, he's not dead," said McGonagall bitterly. "Unlike Dumbledore, he was still carrying a wand... and he seems to have learned a few tricks from his master."

With a tingle of horror, Harry saw in the distance a huge, bat like shape flying through the darkness toward the perimeter wall.

 _(Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter Thirty - The Sacking of Severus Snape)_

From this extract we can see that after jumping out of a classroom window, Professor Snape somehow managed to fly without a broomstick which is remarkably similar to the Dark Lord's abilities when he flew in The Battle of the Seven Potters. According to Harry Potter wiki, Lord Voldemort had invented a spell (with the aid of a few corrupt Ravenclaw followers) a spell for unsupported flight, teaching it to Snape. The Dark Lord was the first person to master flight unsupported without the aid of levitation spells or feathers. However, with the death of both these characters, knowledge on how to perform this spell or master the ancient arte of flyte may have been lost forever.

Another much disputed theory would be that the ability was a talent or a gift not unlike Metamorphagus abilities or a blood – inheritance. The Arte of Flying unsupported is not likely to be passed down through blood relations as the Dark Lord's paternal side was muggle and his maternal relations (the Ancient and Noble house of Gaunt), though directly related to Salazar Slytherin himself, has never been recorded to have any possible gifts other than Parseltongue. Severus Snape's heritage is the same, his paternal Snape side being muggle, and the maternal house of Prince also having no indication of such a gift. It is also very unlikely that either of them had mastered the Legendary Arte of Flyte on their own as Voldemort was only 72 in his passing and Severus only 36, as the Arte needs at least five or more centuries to develop. Therefore the possibilities of it being inherited or mastered are very slim.

The last, most plausible hypothesis would be that Severus turned into his animagus form or sprouted wings from that form half- creature. It is unlikely that Snape managed to sprout wings because he is a magical creature as the only creature with wings are Erotes, Veela, Harpies and occasionally Vampyre. However, as mentioned before, there is next to no chance that Severus inherited anything from the prince line. Also, it is referred to that Severus learnt the skill from his master and Voldemort had stayed in his human form during his pursuit of Harry in The Battle of The Seven Potters.

It is also very unlikely that Snape turned into his animagus or a half-animalistic form of it as the animagus is meant to match your patronus and there are few records of the phenomenally mismatching forms. Snape's patronus is a doe due to his undying love for Lily and in his escape, he is described as a large bat-like shape. Lord Voldemort's incapability to feel emotion means that he cannot experience joy and therefore renders him incapable of creating a patronus and therefore means that he does not have an animagus form.

Though we can never be certain on how Severus staged his escape by invisible broomstick, jetpacks, or simply flew away as some species of giant bat. However, the deaths of him and his master mean that we will never know for sure how exactly how he learnt to fly.


End file.
